It is no longer possible for bad news to be buried. For a while, cricket takes centre stage now that Beckham's boys have departed Baden-Baden and Andy Murray has finished flickering at Wimbledon. Suddenly there is no hiding place for the cricketers and they may be anxious about that with the first Test against Pakistan on the horizon.

It has not gone terribly well in the past month. For those of you who have only just removed your St George's flags from the car, England have just lost five one-day matches in a row against Sri Lanka, each defeat being more emphatic and humiliating than its predecessor.

But that is not all. Their triumphant Ashes captain has been ruled out of next winter's series against Australia, and Andrew Flintoff, their champion all-rounder and preferred captain in Michael Vaughan's absence, is not fit enough to play in the Lord's Test, which starts on Thursday (although he is fit enough to start playing again, beginning with a Twenty20 match for Lancashire today). The only glimmer has come from Ashley Giles's specialist, who says that the left-arm spinner will be ready for the Ashes.

The perception among those who have retained a fleeting interest in the cricket throughout the recent distractions is that the English game is now a complete shambles. A year ago, Ricky Ponting and his Australians were subdued. Now England can beat Ireland, but nobody else.

Do not panic. We are not necessarily doomed just yet. England do remain hopeless at one-day cricket, especially when their key men are absent. They are not hopeless at Test cricket and it is not a shambles. One witness is Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistan team. 'Ten years ago English cricket might have been in a mess,' he says. 'But now you are seeing the benefits of some of the decisions taken over a decade ago. You have a much better system now and you have started to reap the benefits of that.'

Woolmer was referring predominantly to the structure of the England team with the advent of central contracts and the academy. His perspective is to be valued. One dire month does not mean that all those advances have been tossed away because of another startling onslaught from Sanath Jayasuriya.

But it has been a summer of modest achievement. We expected more than a drawn Test series against Sri Lanka. The crucial hiccup was at Lord's in the first match. The touring team should have been nailed but were allowed to escape through the costly combination of dropped catches and the naive expectation that 'we'll win anyway'. That result gave Sri Lanka hope and they responded magnificently. Ever since, England have been straining uneasily - even during their win in the second Test at Edgbaston.

Now they face a team who are reckoned to offer a greater challenge. Pakistan, remember, beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in Kandy in their most recent Test outing, in April. The outlook seems bleak. England's confidence is fragile and they now have a rookie Test captain, Andrew Strauss, in charge.

Strauss remains the stand-in's stand-in. It is hardly a glamorous role, but the selectors have taken the best available decision by opting for Andrew Flintoff, once he is fit. However, they have confused the issue by announcing that Vaughan is still to be regarded as the England captain, even though there is no likelihood of him taking the field for nine months. Do they have a crystal ball after all?

The notion that Vaughan might be able to throw himself into a World Cup campaign next March, having been out of the game for 18 months, beggars belief.

Moreover, the insistence that Vaughan is still the captain must be sending mixed messages to Flintoff: 'We are in a bit of a hole. Could you take the side to Australia? But the minute Michael is back he'll take over, of course.' Would it not be better to wait for the unlikely occurrence of Vaughan and Flintoff being fit simultaneously and then to decide who captains the team?Unfortunately for England, it is a decision that may never have to be made.

They will miss Vaughan badly in Australia - not so much for his runs (there may be decent alternatives with the bat), but for his presence. The players grew used to winning under his leadership. Indeed, they expected to do so. And he was a brilliant general against the Australians last summer.

Vaughan relaxed the team, which was vital, but he could also be tough with them. He was capable of delivering an effective riot act, albeit politely. Everyone would listen, Flintoff included. This winter we can be confident that Flintoff will be capable of relaxing the team - he did that superbly in India this year. But can he discipline them? Can he discipline himself?

But we are ahead of ourselves. As Woolmer observed: 'My impression is that everyone here is far more concerned with the Ashes at the moment than the Tests against Pakistan.' He does not regard this is an insult but added: 'If the players are like that they could be in for a shock. I'm sure that Duncan [Fletcher] will be urging them to concentrate on now and to put the Ashes out of their minds.' It may just be a media obsession. If not, England are struggling.

Woolmer's team have the advantage of taking on England minus Flintoff this week. There is no like-for-like replacement available, so England are likely to play an extra batsman - probably Ian Bell - and make do with four bowlers, with a little help from the semi-pros. This balance enhances the chances of Monty Panesar retaining his place. If you play four bowlers, you want to be as sure as possible that they can all deliver 25 respectable overs in a day. Panesar is far more likely to do that than, say, Jamie Dalrymple.

Pakistan have their injury problems as well. Shoaib Akhtar is likely to miss the series and Naved-ul-Hasan the first Test at least. Mohammad Asif - 'a revelation in Sri Lanka', according to Woolmer - should be an able deputy, even though he bowled without rhythm at Canterbury against England A. But Woolmer seems sanguine about that, as he does about most things. He has been in this game a long time.

'One of the biggest mistakes for a coach is to worry about winning. You have to get the processes right and then winning will take care of itself,' he said. 'Everyone is under pressure. But the job of the coach is often to relieve that pressure for the players.'

Woolmer is coming to the end of his second year in charge of Pakistan and his team are starting to deliver. 'I came into this job almost totally blind, so for the first six months I watched them play and assessed them,' he said. Now their Test cricket has started to improve, with a drawn series in India - 'our victory in Bangalore in the final Test of the Indian series was critical in terms of our self-belief' - followed by beating England and Sri Lanka.

He and Inzamam-ul-Haq are usually on the same wavelength, which helps. 'The coach and captain can't be harmonious all the time,' said Woolmer. 'There would be something wrong if they were. But we both believe in a stable set-up. As a coach you have to adjust your role for different captains. Oddly enough, there are similarities between [Hansie] Cronje and Inzamam. They are obviously different characters. But they used to say that the [South Africa] players would walk off the Table Mountain for Cronje. Well, Inzamam has the same effect on this team.'

Inzamam leads them on the field. He also leads them - with the exception of the Hindu, Danish Kaneria - in prayer five times a day. 'Initially I wondered how I would have time to put my strategy over to the players during the tea interval if they were in prayer,' said Woolmer, who, respecting their religious convictions, realised that his strategy session might have to wait a while.

In any case, he is becoming less dogmatic as a coach as he gets older. 'My mantra could be, "There is no gospel; there is no right way to play." One of my inspirations came from the coaching I received as a youngster. County coaches in those days said this is the way to do it. No questions asked. I was determined never to be a coach like that. I like to think I was in the vanguard of the change in approach.

'When I joined Pakistan I gave the players a questionnaire, asking what they expected of their coach. To a man they replied, "To tell me what I'm doing wrong." That's not the emphasis I want. I'd have been much happier if they had replied, "To make me a better player."'

Now there are signs that he has made players better. The youngsters - Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif - are developing fast. Shahid Afridi now feels he can play his natural, ultra-aggressive game without fear of castigation when he fails. Woolmer's team are maturing and he will stay with them until the World Cup, after which just about every team, every coach and every captain in the world will reappraise their situation. Except, perhaps, England. Vaughan, it seems, will still be the captain come what may.